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Thursday, January 6, 2011

When is it the right thing to do to retain a child?

When is it the right thing to do to repeat a grade? I would love your opinions. My thoughts are this; If a child is making adequate progress but is still a year or two behind his current grade level and by retaining him it would cause the child to close the gap and be on grade level or very close to grade level the next year I say it's worth looking at. If a child is not making progress and likely will not close the gap, by retention then you should not. I also feel like size, maturity level, the students feelings, age difference and a few other things come into play. The so called 'experts ' in the district say research clearly shows that retention leads to a higher drop out rate and is very emotionally damaging to kids. Anyone who has researched knows research can typically provide support for pro and neg on just about anything. Personal experience talking to people who have chosen to retain their children, (not been strong armed into retaining their children) I have heard the exact opposite, that they have much success in school and become more self confident. I am interested in hearing your opinion. Here is the case scenario tell me what you think.

1st grader Nov birthday (maybe all though in reality birth dates are rarely reliable when adopting)
Emotionally immature (through moms eyes)
Bright learns quickly especially English
Small for his age (all though making strides to hit average)
Academically learning most his letters, beginning to blend sounds, Math and really everything academically needs to be shown 1 on 1 how to do things before he has a chance of understanding. (typical of an ESL student)
What do you think? Would love your opinion!

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

I would say definitely to retain him. You want him to be successful, not constantly behind and trying to catch up. Just my opinion. It seems quite common to retain (boys esp) in kindergarten and first grade.

lisa said...

If there is ever a time to retain a child, it would be that first year. For a boy, when they get a little older, having that extra year can be a real positive. Being the youngest, scrawniest, littlest boy in middle school is a real bummer! Physically, emotionally, and academically it can be really helpful to wait that extra year, and in first grade there just isn't as much stigma as there is when they are older.